Singer Rihanna received the national heroine tribute in her native Barbados as part of the presidential inauguration at an event that marked the official removal of Queen Elizabeth II as the island nation’s head of state after 55 years, ushering in an era with the the island’s first president, nearly 400 years since Barbados became an English colony. According to a statement from the Barbados Government Information Office released at the time, the position gives the celebrity “specific responsibility to promote education, tourism and investment for the island.”
